


The Making of a Monster

by CineJu



Category: VALORANT (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Corruption Arc, F/F, F/M, Kingdom!Omen, Kingdom!Viper, LIKE A LOT OF ANGST, Pre-Canon, Referenced Human Experimentation, give Viper a therapist please, lore for Omen, lore for Sage I guess, lore for Viper, they have their real names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:20:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 14,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29359395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CineJu/pseuds/CineJu
Summary: Before, Viper was a scientist who worked for a better future. Before, Sage had hope that she would be able to help more people. Before, he had been alive. Before, they had trusted each other.What’s left when it all comes crashing down? What can there be, other than hate and remorse, when they can’t recognize one another?What makes a monster?
Relationships: Omen & Sage (VALORANT), Omen/Viper (VALORANT), Sage/Skye (VALORANT)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Português brasileiro available: [A Criação de um Monstro](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29359608) by [CineJu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CineJu/pseuds/CineJu)



> All this came from one voiceline from the game: when Viper says "Sage, you're the only one who can keep us alive. Don't fail us now like you failed me then". Maybe I'm overthinking this one voiceline, maybe I'm shoving a bit too much anger into it, but it's turning out pretty nicely, I'd like to think :)
> 
> I think I made it pretty clear, but just so I don't lose anyone: Sabine is Viper; Mirai is Sage; Thomas is -- well, it's fairly obvious who he is but I'll let you figure it out. Any other names you don't recognize from the game are minor characters I had to make up so the story works. 
> 
> I really hope you like it!

Even with half her face covered by a mask, Sage recognized her. It was a face that Sage never thought she would see again. No, that was a lie. She knew she would see Sabine again -- she just desperately hoped she didn’t have to. 

Sage held her gun tightly and said, in a calm voice that didn’t betray the whirlwind of feelings underneath:

“Sabine. I didn't think I’d see you here. Did you get tired of your experiments?”

Sabine laughed, a sharp laugh that didn't have a trace of the woman she had been before. "Quite the opposite. If the field agents can't bring in good samples, I have to do the dirty work myself. But I didn't expect to see you here, Mirai, ” she replied. “I never thought I’d see you holding a gun. Did all that ethics talk finally fall through?”

"Kingdom is threatening every life on this planet, and you think I would not fight it?"

"So you  _ are _ willing to fight, he just wasn't a good enough cause for you." Sage could only see Sabine's eyes over the mask, and they carried a deep rage. Sage couldn't remember if they were different before everything happened. Their green hue now looked as deep and dangerous as the poison that surrounded them.

"You know that’s not true." Sage had spent too much time thinking what she could have done differently, if Thomas could have been saved. Anything she could have done would only have postponed the inevitable, as Sabine had done, and inflicted a lot of pain in the process. And since then, Sabine had done nothing but inflict pain. Sage had read the reports. There were only a few of them, but not for lack of Sabine's victims -- it was hard for rescue to get there before Sabine had killed them all. 

"You could have done something for him, and you know it," Sabine said, the mask of civility starting to fall as her anger raged. Sage's instincts took over when Sabine started to lift her gun, and she raised a wall between them. The metaphor didn’t go unnoticed by Sage. 

Sabine fired at the wall, and Sage barely had time to run through the double doors in Haven before shots flew by her, too close to her head. She went out into the open area just before a big Tasmanian tiger ran through the doors, jumping on top of Sabine with force. She took advantage of Skye's distraction and cover to run to safety, and soon she was with her team on the plane, returning to the Valorant Protocol base and leaving a furious Sabine behind.

“So that’s the infamous Viper. I didn't know Kingdom was sending her on field missions,” Sova said. 

"Yeah, I thought she was just playing Frankenstein on some secret base," Raze said. 

“Sage, you alright? You didn’t answer your comms, and you spent a lot of time in there with her. I was worried,” Skye said, holding her hand. Sage smiled to reassure her.

"I'm fine. I just didn't expect to see her again after so many months,” Sage said, squeezing Skye's hand.

“Hold on, you know her? Viper, the crazy radiant-dissecting scientist who works for the enemy?” Raze asked, incredulous.

“I think I did, at some point. I don't know who she is now,” Sage said. Raze started to ask something more, but gave up under Skye's pointed look. Sage didn’t encourage her question.

She wondered, yet again, if she would ever be able to think of Sabine with acceptance and not with remorse. 


	2. Chapter 2

Viper threw her gas mask on her office desk. She was tired after a field mission with no concrete results, and angry. She always got angry when she thought of Mirai, and seeing her again hadn't gone any better. The radiant hadn't changed at all: still the same arrogant woman who always put herself on a moralistic pedestal, as if she knew more than anyone.

As if Viper wasn't still trying to clean up the mess Mirai could have solved in a second, if she cared enough to do it. 

It seemed an eternity ago, when she hadn't yet coined the name Viper, and the world seemed full of possibilities. Radianite had just been discovered, and Mirai was the most powerful radiant that had been found so far. Sabine had so many ideas, theories about the radianite’s structure and how it could be stimulated to recreate the properties of Mirai’s radiance, brilliant plans for how she could use it to cure diseases. She had done everything to convince Mirai to participate in the research, and the radiant had come all the way from China to take part in her project. Oh, if they knew how that was going to end. 

Sabine hadn't done any of that alone. She was the brain behind the theory, but the experiment that would prove whether she was right had been Thomas's idea. Sabine and her husband worked side by side in the labs, and they were quite the team. Thinking about how they had been was painful, considering how they were now.

It seemed an eternity ago, but she remembered it like it was yesterday.

Sabine was making the last adjustments to the experiment. She had spent the past few weeks going over the details of the theory with Thomas, analyzing the protocol they would follow countless times. Brute radianite was difficult to get and very unstable, so it was unlikely that they would be able to do that experiment more than once. The first time would have to be enough.

Radianite is an incredibly unstable compound that decays very quickly, which isn’t too uncommon. What really makes radianite memorable is that, depending on how it’s stimulated, it stabilizes in different ways, so that a difference of even one degree in the reaction temperature can result in a totally different property in the final result.

Sabine and Thomas had done countless simulations from a model of brute radianite, and she had determined the exact conditions that should result in the properties observed in Mirai's abilities. If they were right, it would be revolutionary. Sabine was so hopeful, so sure that everything would work out. 

They had taken every precaution, separating an area of the laboratory with armored glass that could withstand an explosion almost ten times greater than would be possible with the amount of brute radianite they had available. Thomas was checking the thermostat inside the experimental area and Sabine was going over the sequence of steps for the thousandth time. The experiment would start in half an hour, and Sabine was barely able to calm her heart. Everything she had done for months was leading up to that moment.

She only found out much later that everything had happened because of a power failure and the emergency generator had started up a second too late, which made the radianite stabilization system shut down for an instant. What Sabine knew at the time was that an instability alert appeared on the monitor, and the emergency system locked the door to the containment area. 

Everything had happened so fast. Sabine exchanged a terrified look with Thomas, locked in the containment area, and frantically tried to stabilize the radianite. The compost started to decay, way too fast, and she saw the energy readings rising, faster than she could keep up. Thomas hit the armored glass with a single, desperate thud, and then everything exploded.

Sabine hadn't realized she was falling to her knees until she found herself on the floor. Her ears were ringing, and tears started streaming down her face before she could even process the fact that Thomas was dead. Nobody could survive an explosion like that.

None of it seemed real. It couldn't have ended like this. They were  _ so close _ to understanding everything. He couldn’t be--

She grabbed the edge of the desk and stood up, the taste of bile rising to her throat as she approached the containment area. Some rational part of her knew that radianite explosions were very badly documented so far, that there were types of radiation detected whose effects were unknown and dangerous, but all that seemed so far away. Through tears, Sabine saw a dark, misshapen figure on the floor of the containment area, and nothing was more urgent than that. She needed to get to his body. What would she do next? She didn’t know. She just needed to know if this was real.

The door opened easily, and Sabine knelt beside him. Tears blurred her vision, but still she could see that something was wrong. Thomas's body had a diffuse outline, as if it were not entirely solid; it looked like a patch of darkness in a vaguely human shape. She reached out tentatively, and touched Thomas's arm.

It was as if her nerves didn't know how to interpret what they were touching. It was as if he was solid and gaseous at the same time, soft and rigid, as if he were there at the same time he was not. He pulsed with life at the same time he was cold as death. His hand moved, painfully slow, and touched Sabine's hand.

Alive. He was alive, against all odds. Sabine started to sob harder. What had happened to him? How was it possible?

The door to the containment area slammed open, and Mirai hurried in, worried.

"Sabine, what--" the words died on her lips as Mirai's gaze landed on what, just a few minutes ago, had been Thomas.

"Mirai, you have to do something," Sabine said between sobs, desperate. "He’s still alive. You have to bring him back, you’re the only person who can do it.”

Mirai was frozen in place, looking at Thomas. Sabine looked at her hopefully, tears falling freely, but Mirai wasn’t looking her in the eye when she said, simply:

"No."


	3. Chapter 3

"What do you mean,  _ no _ ?"

Mirai was avoiding her eyes, and Sabine couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Thomas was alive, Mirai had the ability to bring him back, and was she refusing?

"Sabine, he's not Thomas anymore," Mirai said, her voice soft as if she were explaining something to a child. “He isn’t-- I don't know what he is now. But anything I can do will only postpone the inevitable.” Mirai sighed. "You need to let him go."

No. Sabine couldn't accept that. He was alive, he had grabbed her hand, Mirai had to do  _ something _ . Sabine couldn't lose him.

"Mirai, I'm begging you," she said. “You have to do something! What good are your skills if you can't save him? Please!"

Mirai closed her eyes, and Sabine saw a single tear run down her face. "There’s nothing I can do."

“This is absurd! Of course you-- ” Whatever Sabine wanted to say was muffled by a sob. And at that moment, Thomas grabbed Sabine's hand weakly, and said, almost inaudibly:

"Sabine--"

She looked at Mirai hopefully. He was alive, he had said her name, she had to do something now, right? But Mirai just shook her head, and Sabine realized that she had already given up.

Sabine was Orpheus, but she didn't need Mirai to bring her Eurydice back.

She shook his hand one last time and stood up, running to the control desk in the lab. She had taken some blood samples from Mirai to analyze the way the radianite connected to her tissues, and then she had started a treatment that she hoped could regenerate cells. It was just a prototype, a way to begin to understand how radianite worked once it was treated like that. Now, it was Sabine's only hope.

Mirai tried to stop her when she returned to Thomas's side.

"Sabine, what are you--" She was interrupted when Sabine pushed the radiant to the side.

“I’m doing what you’re refusing to do. I’m saving Thomas. ” She injected the medication into his arm.

For a moment, nothing happened. And then, he started to flail -- it was the only word Sabine could use to describe it, but it wasn't what was happening. It was as if he blinked in and out of sight, so fast that her eyes couldn't keep up, and each time he reappeared, he was in a slightly different position. It was like a poorly made, choppy animation of the most painful scene Sabine had ever seen. She tried to hold his hand again, but it was like it wasn't there. After a few excruciating seconds, he disappeared, as if he had never been there. 

Neither of them moved. Sabine couldn't understand what had happened. That-- that should’ve helped. He couldn't be dead. Slowly, she looked at Mirai, who was still staring at where Thomas had been.

"You could have done something." Even Sabine was surprised by the lack of emotion in her voice. She didn't even know what she was feeling. Pain, grief, anger, despair? None of those words came even close to the emptiness she was feeling.

"Sabine, you don't understand--"

"What I don't understand is how you managed to stand around doing nothing while he--" Sabine got up. She might not understand what she was feeling, but she knew part of it was anger at Mirai. "He was dying in front of you, and you didn't do  _ anything _ . I thought you wanted to save lives."

"He was beyond my--"

“You could have tried!” Now Sabine was yelling, and Mirai didn’t raise her voice, didn’t show emotion. How could she be so cold? Didn’t she see Sabine was breaking down in front of her? 

Did she care that little?

"He wasn’t Thomas anymore," Mirai said. "He was something that should never have existed. I don't know what happened to him, but I hope he can be at peace."

"What are you talking about? What do you mean he wasn't Thomas? He said my name, Mirai. You heard it!"

“Something happened to him in that explosion. He should never have survived it. In fact, he didn’t. That was just a shadow, a last remainder of him, but it wasn't him. Not really."

"But it could become him again," Sabine said. “Mirai, you’ve brought people back from the dead. How is this any different? ”

“Those people were still themselves. Sabine, I'm sorry for your loss, I really am. But there was nothing I could do for Thomas.”

Mirai turned around and left the lab in silence, leaving Sabine alone. She wiped away her tears, not knowing what to do.

Mirai might have an intrinsic knowledge of radianite that Sabine would never have, but she couldn't be right about that. Sabine knew what she had seen, and she knew, somehow, that Thomas was alive before he disappeared. She might not know what had happened, but she would.

If it was the last thing she did, Sabine  would understand what had happened to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry about the Orpheus line, it's the most pretensious thing I've ever written but I kind of loved it haha, so I'm keeping it


	4. Chapter 4

When Sage found out she was a radiant, it had been like a dream. She could do so many good things with those skills, save so many lives. The possibilities soon became mixed with expectations, endless requests from sick people who believed she was the only hope, and she couldn't be everywhere at the same time. 

Sabine and Thomas's research had been a lifesaver in a sea of desperate requests: if Sabine was successful in recreating Mirai's skills with brute radianite, she could heal all those people. Mirai accepted the opportunity, and soon she was in a Kingdom building in the United States. At that time, she didn't know what was going on in that building, just under her feet. If she knew, would she have stayed there? Would Sabine? Sage liked to think Sabine was a good person, or had been before her world came crashing down. Sage liked to think that there was hope. Now, she wasn't so sure. 

She had spent months there, while Sabine and Thomas debated theories and procedures, and Mirai had kept herself busy in hospitals as much as she could. She wanted to make a difference, but she also wanted to stay out of that building. She didn't know exactly why, but she felt uncomfortable, as if something bad was going on there. She ignored as much as she could, because Sabine and Thomas's plans were her biggest hope, but Mirai always felt there was something wrong.

The day of the experiment had finally come, and Mirai was full of expectations. After so long, they would finally find out if Sabine was right, if it was possible to recreate the conditions that had shaped Mirai's gifts. Mirai was arriving at the building, just under half an hour before the scheduled time, when she heard the explosion.

She ran for the lab, and her biggest fears were confirmed when she saw Sabine kneeling on the floor next to her in a dark, misshapen, nonhuman form. Mirai had seen despair many times in her life, but she had never seen anything like the contrast between yesterday's high hopes and Sabine's bleak sobs as she hugged that empty shell of a human, while she asked Mirai to do something.

Mirai knew that non-radiants saw radianite as a resource, a material not unlike iron or glass - more impressive, to be sure, but still a material like any other. They couldn't feel it. Sage was able to touch the radianite and feel the connection between all living beings in the world. She could feel life -- and death.

At that moment, she could feel that that misshapen body on the floor was the most distant thing from a living being that she had ever encountered in her life.

She had never felt a more wrong presence. He was between life and death, belonging to none, not fully existing on one plane or another. He was beyond comprehension, beyond any help, beyond Mirai's power. Using her power to bring him back was not only impossible, it was blasphemy to Mirai's connection with life and death. Whatever Thomas was now, he was not a human or even a living being.

Looking into Sabine's eyes, Mirai knew right there that she would never understand. She didn't know if she wanted Sabine to understand, or if it was better to spare her the pain of knowing exactly how much Thomas should -- no, needed to die.

It was at that very moment, when Mirai said "no", that she knew something had broken inside Sabine. Something that even her gifts couldn't fix.


	5. Chapter 5

Thomas didn’t know where he was.

In fact, it was like he wasn't anywhere at all. In fact, it was as if he didn't really exist -- or as if only he existed. It was as if there was no longer a definite limit for his body, as if he were dissolving in the void.

It would be almost peaceful, if it wasn't the most painful thing he’d ever felt.

He remembered his desperation, and the explosion. He felt the emptiness calling out to him, pulling every cell in his body, and if he didn't know it was impossible, he would think that the pain he felt was every single molecule being torn away, dissolving into nothing. Destroying his existence, bit by bit.

He wanted to fight it, but how could he? In a fight between him and the void, he had no advantages. He shattered slowly, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

That day had started with anticipation, with Thomas holding Sabine's hand and knowing that, at the end of that day, they would know more. They would be one step closer to understanding, to having their names immortalized by the discovery.

Thomas didn’t want to disappear.

He hadn’t come undone yet. He still felt a faint connection to the world, to his body, something that still kept him almost whole. It was being shattered too, but the void had patience, and all the time in the world to wrench it out of him, one piece at a time. Thomas didn't have all the time in the world, but he did have a chance.

Thomas clung to that connection, trying to get back to the world he had come from. He felt, very distantly, a little human warmth. He clung to that, clung to life, desperately. And against all expectations, he felt a hand grab his.

Sabine. 

She was the only thing he knew for sure. He needed to get back to her.

He sought back the physical sensations, the connection to his own body, following Sabine's hand as a way back to the world. If he managed to return, perhaps he could escape the void of annihilation. She was his only hope, a beacon leading back to safety.

It was hard to know if he was making any progress, if he was getting any closer or if nothing had changed. He could feel the pull of the void getting stronger, knowing that he was losing time, losing parts of himself. His strength was gradually dwindling. Sabine was still there, but for how long? He couldn't resist forever.

Thomas gathered all that was left of his strength, and called for her. At least, if that were truly the end, her name would be his last word.

Desperation overtook Thomas when, suddenly, he couldn’t feel Sabine's touch anymore. The only thing that still connected him to the world, the only chance he had of not dissolving -- and it was gone. He didn't want to give up, but what hope did he have without her?

Before he could finish that thought, it was as if an electric current had passed through his entire body. A surge of energy overtook Thomas, and he knew that was the only thing that could save him: radianite. He felt his body solidify, bringing the pieces back together, but at the same time the force that shattered him started to pull harder. He tried to focus on Sabine, but it was like he wasn't with her anymore. It was like he was in infinite places at the same time, and he couldn't find Sabine in any of them.

And without something to guide him, Thomas didn't know where he was. He let himself go, with nothing but the hope of being able to find his way back to her.

He just hoped that when he did, it wouldn't be too late.


	6. Chapter 6

Sabine had left the laboratory completely exhausted and aimless. She had come home, the home she shared with him, and burst into tears.

It was only after almost two days that she started to put herself together. She had to understand what had happened, because she would never be able to move on without some understanding of it all, and she didn't know what else to do. Returning to the lab where they had met was an impossible task, but at least she’d have a feeling she was getting somewhere. The house was haunted by Thomas's ghost, and she could barely take a step without being overwhelmed by a whirlwind of emotions.

So three days after the explosion, Sabine returned to the lab. Her colleagues and superiors told her to take more time, but she couldn't go back to that empty house without feeling like she was going somewhere, taking a step closer to putting some sense into all that happened. She immersed herself into her work, analyzing the residue left after the explosion, running simulations, trying to remember that he wouldn't be there if she wanted to ask for an opinion.

She didn't know how long she had been in the lab that day. When she was alone, she lost track of time until she realized it was dark outside or her stomach was growling. She was racking her brain trying to tell if the reaction mechanism was correct when she heard a deep, too familiar voice behind her.

"Sabine," Thomas called. "I found you." His voice sounded like he couldn't believe it. Sabine turned, her heart pounding in her chest. She had seen him disappear, but she would recognize that voice anywhere. She looked him in the eye, or rather, she tried. Because he wasn’t much more than a shadow, a diffuse dark figure with a faint blue glow pouring out. 

"Thomas," she said, walking towards him. Caution spoke louder, and she stopped halfway. "How is this possible?"

"I don't know what happened," he said. “It's like I'm being pulled to infinite places at the same time. I can't stay in one place without effort. Sabine, what happened to me? ”

"I don't know, but I’ll find out," she said, moving towards him slowly. “I’ll figure out what happened, and I’ll fix it. You’re going to go back to normal, Thomas.” She brought her hand to his face. "I promise."

She tried not to flinch when her hand touched his face. The feeling was the same: impossible to fully understand, as if he was almost there, but not quite. He froze when her hand touched her face, and then he brought his hand up to hers.

How could Mirai say that he wasn’t Thomas anymore? How had she given up on him, like he wasn't worth the effort? A tear streamed down her cheek, and Sabine wiped it away, annoyed -- she was tired of tears. She had a mission, and she was not going to rest until he was back in one piece beside her.

"I'm going to fix this," she repeated. "You’re going to be fine, Mirai doesn't know what she's talking about."

“Mirai? Wasn't she the one who helped me, with the radianite?”

She made an indignant sound, pulling her hand back, slightly numb. “That was me, with that drug prototype that I made with samples that we didn't use. She refused to do anything.”

"Why?" he asked, surprised.

“She said you weren’t yourself anymore. That there was nothing she could do.” She laughed, without a hint of humor in her voice. “As if that made sense! As if she hadn't brought people back from the dead. Thomas, don't worry, I'll fix this. I don't need her to bring you back.”

For a moment, he said nothing. And then, she realized that he was flickering -- like a projection crashing, losing strength. She tried to touch him again, but her hand went through his face.

"I don't know how long I can stay here," he said. "I’ll come back. I don't know when or how, but I will find a way.” She could hear the fear in his voice, even though she couldn't see it in his obscured face.

"You will," she said firmly. “And I'll find out what happened to you. You’re going to go back to normal, and everything will be alright,” she said, but he was already fading.

Sabine was standing alone again in the laboratory.

"I love you," she said to the empty room.

More tears started to fall, but Sabine got rid of them, angrily. It didn't make sense to cry if he was alive. She was going to solve everything, there was no doubt about it -- with enough time, Sabine could do anything.

She returned to her test tubes with more vigor. She had no time to waste.


	7. Chapter 7

Sabine only realized that she had spent the night in the lab when sunlight came through the windows, but she stayed there all day. If Thomas was alive, she had to revise her theories, and then she had to reinterpret some results and review all her reaction methods. There was a lot of work, she wanted results as fast as possible, and she could do for a few nights without sleep.

Her mood, therefore, was not the best when she heard a light knock on the door.

"What?" she asked, without taking her eyes off the stubborn pH meter that didn’t match her previous results.

"Sabine, are you alright?" asked Mirai. Sabine sighed, annoyed -- Mirai was the last person she wanted to see. The radiant approached her. “They told me you didn't even go home last night. I can't even imagine how difficult this must be for you, but you need to rest, Sabine. It is not healthy to try to ignore-- ”

"Mirai, I have better things to do," Sabine interrupted. “And I don't need your concern. I'm fine, and I have a lot of work.”

"You are not fine," she said -- always acting like she knew more. “Sabine, why are you in such a hurry? Your work won’t go anywhere if you take a few days to rest.”

"He's alive, Mirai." Sabine looked up from the test tube for the first time in the conversation. “I saw him today -- no, last night. Something happened to him, and I have to understand what it was so I can reverse the effects. But he’s  _ alive _ , Mirai. He's alive, and I just have to -- to solve this problem, I just have to figure out how to get him back to normal, but I'm going to figure it out. He’s going to be alright,” she said, the words coming out too fast.

Mirai touched her shoulder gently. “Sabine, you really need to rest. We both saw what happened to him, didn't we? There was no way he could survive that. Are you sure you weren't imagining what you wanted to see? ”

Sabine pulled away from the touch. “I  _ know  _ what I saw, Mirai. He talked to me. I'm not hallucinating. Have you ever imagined that  _ you _ could be wrong? Do you realize that if you had at least considered the possibility, Thomas could be alive and well? Do you realize that all of this is the result of _ your _ pride? ”

"Sabine, I--"

“You just gave up on him. I won’t make the same mistake,” she said.

“Sabine, you said you know what you saw, but I know what I felt. Whatever he was, it couldn't be brought back. And if he is alive somehow, he is not fully human anymore. Forgive me, Sabine, but fixing that is impossible.”

"You don't know what you're talking about," Sabine said. "But it doesn’t matter. I can handle this myself.” She went back to paying attention to her procedure, in a way that meant that the conversation was over. Mirai stayed there for a few seconds before sighing and heading for the door.

Before she left, she stopped at the doorway and said:

“Sabine, I really wish you were right. But Thomas is gone. I hope you can make your peace with that.”

Sabine didn't respond, focusing on reviewing the pH measurement results that she hoped she wouldn't have to redo again. It wasn’t long before she heard another knock on the door. She turned, annoyed and ready to tell Mirai to fuck off, but it wasn’t her at the door.

“Sabine. We can talk?" said John Parker. He was one of her colleagues, and he coordinated one of the other projects that Kingdom bankrolled. His project was one of the most classified, and even Sabine didn't know exactly what he did.

She had a lot to do, but curiosity got the best of her. She needed a break, anyway.


	8. Chapter 8

Mirai left the lab corridor trying to calm herself down. Sabine was stubborn, and the way she always found a way to blame Mirai for what had happened was annoying. Mirai tried not to get carried away. Sabine was dealing with grief in her own way, somewhere between anger and denial, and Mirai had to give her time.

She had to give Sabine credit: she knew how to hit exactly where it hurt. Mirai was a proud woman, she knew that and was trying to work on it. Sabine's words were now running through her mind, making her question. Could she really have done something? Sabine seemed so sure that Thomas was alive. She might be going through the worst moment of her life, but Sabine still had good judgment. Well, she could be the most rational person on earth, but going without sleep for days definitely wasn't helping her.

Mirai cleared the doubts from the mind. She could spend forever questioning what she could have done or not done, but the past was the past. And more importantly, she knew what she had felt. Thomas was beyond salvation, as much as it hurt to admit it.

And what did Sabine think, that Mirai didn't care? That she didn't want to save Thomas? Of course she wanted to help, and if she could, she would have done anything to make him better. Mirai shook her head, losing that line of thought. Sabine was trying to cope with her grief, and had blamed Mirai because she didn’t know what else she could do. She had to be patient and let Sabine come to that conclusion alone. It was painful to see her suffering from afar, unable to do anything to help, but that conversation had proved that Mirai would only be getting in the way.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she came across one of Kingdom's scientists in the hall.

“Ah, Mirai, exactly the person I wanted to see. Is this a good time? I'd like to talk to you." The scientist was a tall man with blond hair that Mirai had met when she arrived in the United States, but Mirai had worked more with Sabine and Thomas and hadn't gotten to know many of the others. His name was Frank, and if Mirai remembered well, he worked in medical research, while Sabine worked with pharmaceutics. 

Mirai agreed and followed the man to an office a few doors down. He gestured for her to sit down while he shut the door.

“Well, I'm going to get straight to the point. You must imagine that Sabine's project is going to be cut short, or at least put on a break, considering the, uh, events of a few days ago,” he said. That was the last thing on Mirai’s mind, who was lost between dealing with her own feelings and trying to help Sabine, but of course that was how the industry worked. She nodded, keeping her thoughts about the lack of empathy in the business world to herself.

"So, I figured that while that’s not settled, you could be interested in another project, where we’re studying the abilities of quite a few radiants," he said. “We’re trying to find out exactly what the limits of the radianite's influence are. We want to understand exactly why some individuals have more affinity with radianite, and that could lead to great discoveries, a revolutionary understanding of the human body.”

"It sounds very interesting," she said politely. "But to test the limits of my skills, people would need to get hurt, so I don't think I would be a good addition to your tests."

"Well, as we are testing many different things, sometimes accidents happen," he said. "It would be good to have a healer around."

Mirai always believed that having a bad feeling about something meant that her subconscious was picking up something too subtle to be perceived rationally. Since she had set foot in Kingdom’s base, she had had a feeling of discomfort, that she had tried to ignore in the name of doing something that could help many people -- but that proposal gave her a worse feeling than anything so far.

So Mirai followed her instincts.

"What kind of accidents?" she asked.

"Well, considering that we're dealing with radiants with very different and unpredictable skills, sometimes--"

"I don't believe you," she said matter-of-factly. Frank had the audacity to look shocked. “I think you and the other scientists are doing something to the radiants that you managed to convince with your promises. I’ve been feeling a strange flow of radianite since the first time I set foot in this building, but I never understood why until now.”

The man's poker face fell apart completely. Mirai had hit the target perfectly.

“I wanted to bring you without the need for violence, but I think I have no other choice, do I? When Sabine managed to convince you to come here, we let her try what she wanted, but the project that really matters was never hers.” He pressed a button on the telephone extension in front of her and started to say: 

"Security--"

Mirai did not wait to hear the details. She dashed down the corridor, through which two security guards were already coming toward her. Taking advantage of her head start, she entered an empty room, hoping she hadn't been seen. Mirai held her breath until she heard footsteps moving away.

She guessed they would look for her near the exit, but that was not where Mirai was going -- at least not now. She and Sabine had their differences, but she needed to tell her what was going on.


	9. Chapter 9

Mirai walked into Sabine's lab without knocking -- a slight oversight, but justifiable under the circumstances. She closed the door behind her, a bit out of breath. Sabine turned and, realizing it was Mirai, frowned.

"I don't have time for another interruption, Mirai."

“I know that I must be the last person you want to see now, but I didn't come here to try to change your mind. I discovered something awful.”

Sabine didn't answer, turning back to her equipment, but she didn't complain again. Mirai accepted this as a cue to keep talking.

“One of the other scientists, Frank, made me a proposal to enter another project with Kingdom. He said they were testing the limits of the radianite's influence, and when I questioned him, he admitted that they are doing something horrible with the radiators. I don't even want to imagine what kind of unethical experiments they are doing,” she said, wincing. “Security is looking for me right now. I don’t--"

"I know."

That left Mirai completely speechless. Sabine continued to shake a test tube, as if she hadn't said anything out of the ordinary. Mirai recomposed herself, at least a little. 

“What do you mean, you know? Since when? What--"

“Frank works on the same project as Walker, doesn't he? I was just informed. I start working on that project tomorrow.”

She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

“How could you do something like that? Sabine, how can you agree with that? They’re deceiving radiants and doing horrible things, and are you going to take part in it? I thought you had at least  _ some _ decency,” Mirai said, feeling a surge of anger rising in her chest. Her voice was getting louder with each sentence, but she didn't care. “You wanted to help people. I thought you cared, Sabine. How could I have been so wrong about you?”

Sabine didn't even seem to acknowledge Mirai was there.

"How did I ever trust you?"

The silence that followed was almost palpable. Sabine set the test tube gently on the holder and her eyes met Mirai's. Her collected behaviour had been a farce, as evidenced by the icy hatred in her green eyes. Mirai held her gaze.

"You know, I asked myself the same thing," Sabine said, her voice completely emotionless. “How did I ever trust you, Mirai? When you didn’t lift a finger to help Thomas, to help me save him, when I needed it most. I believed in your act, the blessed girl who wants to save lives, who just wants to help people.” She walked around the worktable, approaching Mirai with slow steps.

“I spent so long wondering why you would do this, but I gave up trying to understand your reasons. What I do know is that I will do whatever it takes to solve what you refused to fix.

“You see, radianite decays very quickly, so I have no more residue from the blast to try to find out what happened. My only option is to study the influence of radianite on human tissues, hoping it’ll help me understand how Thomas was affected. And where else would I be able to study this?”

"Your way of thinking is  _ disgusting _ ," Mirai said. “What would Thomas say about this? He wouldn’t--"

"You have  _ no _ right to tell me what he wants or doesn't want," Sabine interrupted. “And it just so happens that I  _ know _ what he wants. He doesn't want to die, Mirai. And I will do everything I can to bring you back. Unlike you.”

Despite everything, Mirai felt sorry for Sabine. She was completely deluded, believing that there was something she could do for Thomas. Mirai would have compassion for her -- if that delusion wasn’t threatening the very existence of people like Mirai.

The sound of footsteps moving away in the hallway brought Mirai back to reality. Security was looking for her, and it was only a matter of time before they decided that disrupting Sabine's work was a necessary hassle. Mirai had to make a decision.

Strangely, the decision came easily to her. She would spend a long time wondering what it said about her -- if it made her a horrible person to give up on Sabine so easily. But at that moment, she knew perfectly well that Sabine was beyond argument. Beyond Mirai's capabilities, one could say. 

“Sabine, you don’t know how much I wish things had gone differently,” she said. 

“The feeling is mutual.” 

Mirai left the lab without looking back. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just giving the heads up that I edited the first chapter -- not by much, I just made Skye and Sage as gay as I intended them to be at first but ended up cutting in my first version. Now they're as gay as they should be.


	10. Chapter 10

The hallway was empty, but Mirai knew she couldn't take long. She tried to go unnoticed and take a path far from the main corridors, hiding whenever she heard footsteps. Her heart was pounding in her chest, startling with every noise she heard as she walked through the building. She was lucky that it was late afternoon and many of the employees were already leaving -- perhaps she could slip through security along with them on the way out.

She was taking a path that would take her closer to a remote exit when the fire alarm started to ring, echoing through the corridors. Not long after, Mirai started to get surrounded by smoke. She picked up her pace, trying to get to the exit as quickly as possible.

Shots echoed through the halls, and Mirai hesitated. It was a perfect distraction for her escape, because security would be too busy to notice her. But what if those shots meant someone was acting against Kingdom? What if it meant she wasn't the only one who knew what they were doing and wanted to do something about it?

She remembered hearing about a group that stood against Kingdom. In the news, they said it was an extremist group, opposed to research on radianite and that they had been responsible for the Venice disaster. But the news also painted Kingdom as revolutionary and innovative, something she now knew wasn’t the whole truth.

It would be very easy to get out of there without being noticed, but if there was a chance that Mirai would do something to help, she would take that risk. Against her own better judgement, Mirai turned and went in the direction of the shots.

It was not difficult to find the source of the commotion, but the shots had already stopped when it arrived. A dark-skinned young man wearing a white jacket was standing next to the bodies of several security guards, and he was holding his shoulder while speaking in a low voice, probably through a communicator. Mirai thought she was approaching silently, but he suddenly turned and pointed a gun at her.

"Who are you?"

She held up her hands. "My name is Mirai.”

"And you’re with them?" he asked, gesturing to the bodies on the floor. She shook her head.

"So what’re you doing here?"

"I came to be part of a project, and--"

"Ah, I see," he said, lowering the gun, with visible discomfort due to the gunshot wound to his shoulder. "That's what they say to everyone."

"I can help with that," she said, pointing at his shoulder. "I’m a healer."

He shrugged -- which was clearly not well thought out, and he winced at the movement -- and Mirai let her energy flow through him, healing the wound completely.

"Wow," he said. “Oh, I'm Phoenix. I have to find the rest of my team, but if you follow me and stay away from the fire and bullets, we'll get you out of here. And if you want to stay with us, well, I'm sure a skill like yours would help a lot.”

"Now that I know the truth, I want to do something against Kingdom," she said. "They cannot continue to do as they please with people like us."

"That's it then, we got this," Phoenix said, holding out his hand. "You’re the newest member of Valorant Protocol."

Mirai shook his hand. "It is an honor."

"Let's get out of here," he said with a smile. "And let's leave this place way worse than we found it."


	11. Chapter 11

Seeing Sabine again had brought back a lot of memories and emotions, but it had been months since Mirai had joined Valorant Protocol and started calling herself Sage. The blast, Sabine's betrayal, and everything else was past, and Sage was going on another mission. It had been a week since she had met Sabine in Haven, and they had heard rumors that Kingdom was trying to rebuild its base in Ascent.

Their mission was pure recon, with the goal of finding out if Kingdom was still moving around the base. They didn't expect any confrontations, so the agents were moving separately. Sage was making her way from sector A, checking the corners carefully as she headed to the mid through the main path.

She turned the corner with caution, and between the tables and chairs scattered across the wreckage of an ice cream parlor, was a shadow. It was the only way to describe the hooded figure that turned when Sage approached. He had no face -- just three lines of blue light shining in her direction.

She had heard stories, urban legends among the radiants and other Valorant operatives, about a shadow they called Omen -- a being born from a secret Kingdom experiment, who killed without mercy. The name had been given because when you saw him, you were already dead -- or, if you were a radiant, captured.

Sage had never believed the stories, had imagined that some bored soldier had started a ghost story to scare his companions, but Sage couldn’t deny that the shadow in front of her was real.

The sphere of dark shadow he was holding dissipated, unusable, when he saw Sage.

"Mirai?" he asked, as if he couldn't believe it.

For a moment, nothing made sense. And then, it clicked.

"Thomas." His name slipped from her lips, but it couldn't be anyone else. It was impossible -- she had seen that misshapen figure on the laboratory floor, she had felt that wrong presence, she knew there was nothing to be done.

And yet, he was there. She could feel his presence, and it was not the same feeling she had had in the laboratory. He wasn’t entirely alive, but it was as if he were one step away from it. He didn't feel wrong, but almost right. There was hope.

"Sabine said you didn't do anything to help me after the explosion," he said, breaking the silence. “I found it hard to believe. Is it true, Mirai?”

“I thought there was nothing I could do. Your presence wasn’t entirely human anymore, and I thought you were beyond my abilities.” She had convinced herself that she had made the right choice, but saying it to Thomas himself was totally different, and her voice faltered. And now, she knew. "I was wrong."

"I don't know if you were."

"I was wrong," she repeated. “Your presence is different now. It's not quite right yet, but perhaps there’s something I can do. ”

"Sabine is trying."

"Sabine is killing radiants." He straightened his shoulders, and Sage suddenly remembered that the one in front of her was Omen, Kingdom's assassin, and that she was crossing a dangerous line.

"I never wanted that," he said, and Sage was relieved to realize that he was still the same. “Sabine -- something happened to her when I changed. She started these experiments trying to help me, but she’s doing things I didn't think she was capable of.”

“I didn't know what she was capable of, either. But Thomas, if there’s anyone who can convince her that this is wrong, it’s you. You’re the only one she’ll listen to.”

He shook his head. “I’m a coward, Mirai. I can't tell her to stop. I hate to know that people are dying because of me, but I hate even more the idea of disappearing, of never being myself again. I don't know if I want her to stop. ”

"There has to be another way," she said, approaching. "Maybe there’s something I can do."

“What if there isn’t? What if this is the only way? I can't take any chances, Mirai. And I trust her. If Sabine says she can do something, with enough time and equipment, she will.”

“But at what cost? How many people need to suffer for this?”

He looked away from her. “She’s doing horrible things, all because of me. None of this would have happened if I had just died.”

"Thomas--"

"When she saved me, she also gave me a curse." He turned to face her again, and the blue light seemed to shine brighter. “She gave me enough strength not to disappear into the void, but not enough to keep me whole. It’s never enough.”

“My power might be the solution. It was something made from my radiance that brought you back, wasn't it? Maybe I can bring you back for good,” she said, stepping closer. “Come with me, Thomas. You don't have to hurt anyone else.” If she reached out, she would touch him. What would it be like to touch a shadow? would she feel the soul that longed for peace inside him?

"Sabine didn't give up on me," he said quietly. “The least I can do is not give up on her. Maybe I can still bring her back. She's doing all this for me, after all. I have to try, Mirai.”

She took another hesitant step and touched his shoulder. It was as if an electric current was running through her fingers.

"I trust you, but I don't know if Sabine can be brought back."

"I won't be able to forgive myself if she can't."

He put his hand over hers. A shiver ran through Mirai's spine.

"It’s not your fault."

“I let her torture people, I let her destroy herself, all because I'm scared, Mirai. What does that make me, if not a selfish monster?”

Before Mirai could respond, a gust of wind blew through the air as Jett dashed towards them with a knife in her hand. Mirai took a step back, startled, and Thomas disappeared in a cloud of shadows an instant before Jett's knife hit him.

“Sage, what were you doing? That thing was Omen? Are you okay? How are you alive?”

Sage held her own hand, numb from the contact with his skin. He was alive, after all. Among all the things she could be wrong about, she was glad it was that. 


	12. Chapter 12

Thomas walked into the laboratory hoping Sabine would be there. Well, she was always in the lab, but sometimes, she was in the experiment room next door. Fortunately, he found Sabine sitting at the computer.

"Honey," she smiled, looking up from work. “How was your mission? Did you find anything? ”

At times like these, it almost seemed like nothing had happened.

"The rumors that radiants were hiding in Ascent weren’t true, but Valorant was there." A shadow of concern passed over her face, and he added: “I didn’t run into trouble, don't worry. But Mirai was there.”

Sabine frowned, like she always did when Mirai was mentioned. “Of course she was. Let me guess: she made a beautiful speech about how Kingdom is hurting people, how what we do is wrong, and how you should join them. She never mentioned the fact that they are a terrorist group that kills thousands of people, especially with that mess in Venice, and that they have no chance of winning this fight.”

Well, Thomas couldn't deny that she had reached almost every important point in the conversation. It didn't seem right to mention that much of what Mirai had said was about Sabine. It seemed even worse to mention that he had talked even more.

"Something's bothering you, isn't it?" she asked. He had always been a quiet man, and after the accident, Thomas couldn’t rely on facial expressions to show his emotions anymore. He had become very difficult to read, but Sabine always seemed to understand. It was as if she could see right through him.

“She admitted that she was wrong about me. She said there was hope,” he confessed.

“She promised you that she could bring you back, if you joined her, didn't she? After everything she said, after refusing to help? Fucking hypocrite,” Sabine cursed. “Thomas, she told you what you wanted to hear. She didn’t help you after the blast, and now that she has something to gain, she offers you salvation? Don't let her get inside your head.”

Putting it that way, he looked like an idiot for believing her. But Sabine hadn't seen how surprised, regretful, genuine Mirai looked. Sabine hadn't heard the way her voice had faltered.

"People are dying because of me, Sabine."

“I know that, Thomas, but what’s the alternative? You want to go back to how you were before, don't you? ”

"Yes, but--"

“There is no other way. I have to find ways to separate radianite from your tissues without killing you. The only way to achieve this is to test it, you know that. What do you think Mirai can do, wave her hands and fix everything in an instant? That’s not how it works. Radianite isn’t so simple.”

She talked the same way she always had when they discussed procedures. If he didn't pay attention to the words, he could imagine they were discussing something insignificant, like the best solvent to observe a reaction. He could look her in the eye and pretend she still saw his face, looking back at her.

But she wasn’t discussing simple things. She was talking about killing people, about bringing Thomas back to life bathed in blood.

Sabine had taken the name Viper after working with a radiant woman who had an accident near a chemical industry, whose blood had turned toxic. The girl had died in a few days, but Sabine had been enchanted by the way radianite bound itself with toxins, and it had become her personal side project. Thomas had seen, little by little, how Sabine got a taste for going on field missions and coming back with detailed reports on suffocations, slow and painful deaths.

Thomas had watched his wife gradually get used to killing and bringing suffering, he had been silent when she entered the "experiment room" next to the laboratory and all he heard were screams. He had stood and watched while she destroyed the parts of her that still cared.

She had destroyed herself so completely that she couldn't even realize that the Sabine he knew was dead. What was left were the same green eyes he had known for years, now cold and unforgiving as death. There was only a shadow of who she was.

"Sabine, you have to find another way," he said. One last try. “We can’t keep doing this. I can't keep pretending I don't care.”

"Mirai got to you harder than I thought," she said. She didn't understand that he’d been thinking that for months, that Mirai had done nothing but give him the courage to say something, the courage to put the suffering of others above his own fear.

“Thomas, look at me. I promised I would do everything I could to bring you back, and that is what I’m going to do. There is no other way. This is the only way to bring you back completely.” The tone of voice she used was straightforward, cutting like a sharp knife. “Mirai promised you ies. She doesn't care, and she wants you to question yourself. If she cared, none of this would be happening.”

Sabine placed a hand on his face, gently but firmly. "Do you trust me?" she asked.

What could he say? They had spent years together, he knew when he needed to pull her out of the lab to get some rest and when it was better not to get in her way, he knew every part of her like the back of his hand. But everything had changed, and the woman standing in front of him was not the same he had married. He didn't trust Viper as he had trusted Sabine.

But how could he look her in the eye and say all of that?

He nodded, as if not saying it out loud would make it a smaller lie.

“Then trust that I'm going to fix this, Thomas. You're going to be alright."

"I know," he said, trying not to show his real feelings.

He didn’t know how to read the look she gave him. She had always been able to read his emotions so easily -- maybe she had seen through the lie.

“I need to finish things up here. Give me an hour -- well, an hour and a half, and then we'll go home. Alright?"

He nodded, and she smiled slightly. Maybe she didn't know him that well anymore, he thought. He didn't know if that was a relief, or if it broke his heart even more.

He left the lab trying not to notice she was reaching for her surgical instruments. He walked away, far enough to make sure he wouldn’t hear the screaming.


	13. Chapter 13

It wasn’t hard to find Mirai again. Thomas had some kind of connection to the universe, to radianite, and somehow, he could feel when someone was playing with the balance of forces. The universe had a connection with every living thing, and radianite was an intrinsic part of that connection, in a way that he didn’t fully understand -- but sometimes, he felt a tug at the energy, as if someone was taking back some of the essence of life.

Now that he had seen Mirai again, he understood -- that pull was her, and her gift.

Traveling through the void was more practical, but definitely more painful than traveling by any normal means. He pulled himself together with a grunt of pain, and found himself in an almost empty infirmary, except for Mirai and a girl he recognized from the Kingdom archives. Jett, the wind radiant, the one who had just tried to stab him a few hours ago. Maybe this was going to be harder than he imagined.

As was to be expected, Jett got up from the infirmary bed where she was sitting and dashed at him, or tried to. Mirai put a hand on her shoulder firmly, but with care.

“Jett, wait. He's not here to hurt anyone,” she said, with a cautious look, as if asking if she could trust him.

Jett continued to look at him suspiciously and a knife in his hand. He had read enough mission files to know that those knives flew and hit enemies quite accurately, so he took care to keep his hands in her sight.

"Shall we talk outside?" Mirai asked.

Jett shot Mirai a look as if she couldn't believe she had just said that, and they seemed to argue with silent glares for a moment. Finally, Jett said:

“You know this guy killed a lot of our people, right? Like, I know you guys have a history and stuff, but be careful.”

“I know, Jett. It's okay,” she said.

Jett shot Thomas a last suspicious glare as Mirai headed for the door, and Thomas followed.

“She's right, you know. You have no reason to trust me,” he said, as he followed her on a walk through the base.

"I know what I saw in Ascent, and I know you," she said, as if she believed it completely. "What are you doing here, Thomas?"

“You were right about Sabine. She’s beyond anything I can do.”

"I'm very sorry. I wish I was wrong,” she sighed. "But I knew you were better than that."

“I did nothing while she killed so many people. How do you still believe that, if it took me so long to figure out what was going on and do something?”

“You may not have had the courage to do anything before, but you never accepted what she did. I like to think it means something,” she said, with a smile.

He had missed Mirai's comforting presence.

“This is not going to end so easily. I didn't have the courage to tell Sabine that I was leaving. She is not going to take it well, and I worry about what she can do.”

"Does that mean you left Kingdom for good?"

He nodded. “If Valorant accepts me, I would like to fight what Kingdom is doing. I wasn’t very high in the hierarchy, but I know some information that can be useful.”

She smiled. “It may be a little difficult, but I will talk to the other agents. I am sure they will realize that you are a great addition to the team.”

"I wish I shared your optimism."

They walked in silence for a moment. The night wind blew at his hood, and he wondered if Mirai might be feeling cold. Thomas's body -- if he could even call his form a body -- now had a much lower temperature than a human body.

"You shouldn't be worried about what Sabine might or not do," Mirai said, breaking the silence. “Her reaction is her responsibility now, not yours. Whatever she does, it’s not your fault.”

Thomas sighed. "Mirai, I don't know what I would do without you."


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter's small but rest assured the next ine's bigger and it's one of my favorites <3

Recently, results had been difficult to achieve. Valorant was getting a lot of advantage in anticipating Kingdom's next steps, and Sabine had been getting too few test subjects. So, she was taking her time with the last radiant they had managed to capture.

She left the lab before the time she had agreed with Thomas had passed, but when she went to meet him in the usual place, he wasn’t there. She asked if anyone had seen him, and no one had since he came back from the mission. Not that it meant much, since he could go anywhere without being seen, but still, it was strange. He preferred not to use his skills unless it was strictly necessary.

She called him a few times, but no one answered. She went back to the lab, went back to their meeting place and did not find him. With every missed call, every time someone said they hadn't seen Thomas, a seed of doubt in Sabine grew a little stronger. After the fourth missed call, she was sure.

Thomas was no longer on her side. Maybe it was hasty to assume that, but that conversation from before had made it very clear.

She went back to the lab and sat down, thinking about what she could do now. What was the purpose of continuing his experiments, if not for him? Perhaps now she could admit that she wasn’t doing all of this just for him. Perhaps now she could admit that she was so damn  _ curious _ to understand how radiance worked, how she could create and destroy that power.

If he was no longer on her side, he was with Valorant. With Mirai, to be exact. And Valorant was getting in the way of Sabine's plans more and more, with every new agent they got and every new information they captured. If Thomas had changed sides, they would have had a lot more information.

She could use that to her advantage. And if Thomas could change sides so easily, without guilt, well, there was nothing she could do. If he was on the wrong side when Valorant fell to the ground, then so be it.

She took out her cell phone and dialed a number.

“Sabine. It’s late, you know. ”

“I have a plan to solve our problems with Valorant. Kill two birds with one stone, one might say.” Well, three birds, but high command didn't care about Sabine's personal issues.

There was a pause. "I'm listening."

Sabine smiled to herself. Thomas and Mirai had made her choice, and they were about to realize what that meant.


	15. Chapter 15

Getting the other agents to trust Thomas was hard work, but Sage managed to persuade them to give him a chance. Trust was still a long way off, but she was sure that they had taken the first step in that direction.

He had chosen to keep the name Omen, no matter how much Sage said he could choose something less morbid. He said that people would keep calling him that no matter what he chose, and it made no sense to go against expectations. It didn't help the rest of the team to trust him, but he was insistent about it.

Recently, however, Cypher had gotten some very interesting information. With trackers, microphones carefully placed in invaded bases and other more questionable means, he had located one of Kingdom's largest bases -- the so-called Icebox, in the Arctic. A base that was supposed to be where Kingdom kept dozens of radiants, and whose location Omen could confirm. He said that exact locations were given only to the highest ranking officers, but that he knew the base.

Based on the information Omen could give them -- always checked out by Cypher -- they planned an operation to destroy the laboratory and free the radiants. They did not know the base and did not have time for recon, as it was difficult to reach the Arctic without being noticed, but Omen had provided a map that would have to do.

It had been just over a week since the mission to Ascent. With such a unique and valuable skill, Mirai always ended up being sent to the most important missions, which was starting to become tiring. She looked at the team assembled on the plane that was taking them to Icebox: Skye, Sova, Phoenix, Breach, and Raze.

At least the plan wasn't too complicated, which was always a good thing when dealing with more aggressive agents like Phoenix, Raze and Breach. And at least she could trust that Sova and Skye would maintain order.

She went over the plan in her mind again. The base had two main buildings and a radianite storage area, but their focus was on building A, the laboratory. Sova would launch her arrows and use her owl drone to give information while Sage and Skye entered the laboratory -- Skye looking for enemies with her trackers and Sage looking for the radiants. Breach would cover for Sova, and Phoenix and Raze would stay in the rear and destroy the base when they were done.

They landed with the plane in the snow, and as soon as the door opened, Sage felt the cold wind on her skin.

"Ah, I missed this weather," said Sova.

“People live in this cold? No way,” said Raze, pulling her coat tighter around her body. “This couldn't be in Bind, right? It had to be in the middle of the ice.”

"This is much better than that goddamn sun in Bind," said Breach. “When you're jumping and dropping bombs, you won't even notice it's cold. Now try to run around in Bind and see if you don't turn into a puddle of sweat.”

"I’d rather sweat a little than turn into a damn popsicle," she replied.

"I'm not feeling too cold," said Phoenix.

"Your whole thing is fire, what were you expecting?" said Skye.

"Nothing I can do about it if I burn hot," he said with a smug smile.

"Let us finish our mission soon and return to warmth," said Sage, taking the lead.

"Hell yeah," Raze agreed.

“Remember the plan. Raze and Phoenix, you only move forward if we need reinforcements. Stay on the plane for now.”

The two agreed and stayed back as Sage and the rest of the team advanced towards the base. Sage was trying to stay focused on her surroundings and not think about the cold, but the discomfort was hard and she was almost shivering, even in the thickest clothes she had brought.

Skye wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Sage looked at the taller woman, and Skye smiled.

"I couldn't let our healer go cold, could I?"

Sage smiled back, grateful for the extra warmth and Skye's presence.

Soon they approached the building that Thomas had marked on their maps. Sova prepared an arrow in the bow, and Skye separated from Sage to get her Tasmanian tiger ready.

Sova launched his locator arrow at a well-calculated angle, while Skye walked up the ramp quietly and Sage went through a corridor. She kept her attention on the communicator, waiting for any warning from Sova or Skye, and tried to feel her connection to the radianite, with no success. Maybe she needed to get closer.

She entered the laboratory carefully, hoping to find at least a few scientists, but found the place empty. She looked at Skye, who was higher up, and she signaled that she also had not seen anyone. The equipment was turned on, but there was not a living soul in that building.

"Guys, there's nobody here," Skye warned over the communicator.

"Like, the radiants aren't in the lab?" asked Phoenix.

“No, like, there's no one. No scientists, no security guards, radiants, anything. The equipment is all connected, but there’s no one here.”

"That’s weird," said Breach.

"Are you sure there’s _ no one _ there?" asked Raze.

"Yes, we are sure," replied Sage.

"There are only a few smaller rooms that need to be checked out, but if there was someone, they’d have come to see what's going on at this point," said Skye.

"We have to be sure," said Sage. “We will finish investigating the laboratory and leave as soon as possible. I have a bad feeling about this.”

"Alright," said Skye. She sent her tracking dogs, which began to search the back rooms.

The unmistakable sound of gunfire rang over the communicator.

"What is happening?" Sage asked.

"Hey guys, some enemies who found us back here on the plane, and there are a lot of them," Raze said, and in the background Sage could hear an explosion.

"Yeah, we could use some help here, guys," Phoenix said.

"Just tell me where’s the fight," Breach said enthusiastically.

“We have to get back to the plane. There was something wrong with our information, this is an ambush,” Sage said.

"Understood," said Sova.

“Skye? Did you find anything in those rooms?”

There was no response other than the sound of gunshots in the background.

"Skye?" Sage had seen the dogs entering one of the rooms, but it was strange that Skye was not responding.

“Sova, Breach, get back on the plane and help Phoenix and Raze. I will see if everything is fine with Skye, and we will meet back with you.”

"Understood," said Sova.

"You don't have to tell me twice," said Breach.

Sage headed for the room where Skye had entered. The lab had a metal floor that made a lot of noise if you weren't careful, and the sound echoed off the walls and high ceiling. The lack of any sound other than Sage's footsteps, in addition to the intense cold that still entered the open door even with heating, left Sage with her nerves on edge.

She found the room and opened the door carefully, with her gun at the ready. Skye was standing in the middle of the room, unarmed -- and standing behind her, with a knife to the agent's neck, was Sabine.

“Exactly the person I was looking for. Put the gun down, Mirai.”


	16. Chapter 16

“Sabine. I should have known,” Sage said, lowering the gun.

“Sage, don't! Get outta here!" said Skye. Sabine pressed the knife to her throat, drawing a drop of blood.

“Quiet. No one’s going anywhere.”

"What do you want, Sabine?"

"I want all of you from Valorant to die on your knees, begging for mercy," she said, her voice laden with poison. “But that’s only a matter of time. Right now, I want one more radiant to study. And it would be a waste to have to kill one of you, don't you think?”

Sage made eye contact with Skye. She was trying to communicate with her eyes for Sage to get out of there, but she pretended not to notice. There had to be some way to take away Sabine’s advantage and get Skye out of there.

“What I want, Mirai, is you. You were the first radiant I studied, and I know your radiance better than anyone. Perhaps you’re the answer,” Sabine said. "And of course it will be very rewarding to have you at my mercy, but that’s beside the point."

"And what makes you think I am going to do what you want?"

"I'm glad you asked." Sabine took a syringe filled with a shiny green liquid from her pocket. “This is one of my best creations. It kills in five minutes, but the damage starts to become permanent after three. It causes a lot of pain, that I assure you.”

Before Sage could do anything, she stuck the needle into Skye's arm, who let out a groan of pain.

"No!" Sage's cry left her lips without thinking, and Sabine smiled darkly.

"I have the antidote with me. But if you don't come with me, your friend will die a very painful death. And neither of us wants that, do we?"

“Sage, don't do anything she says. You have to--” Skye started, but was interrupted by a coughing fit. Some blood fell to the floor, but Sabine continued to hold Skye tightly. Sage couldn't bear to see Skye suffering like that.

She had no guarantee that Sabine would fulfill her part of the agreement, but she had no option.

“Okay, Sabine. You won."

Skye tried to protest, but the poison was clearly taking effect quickly. Sabine was not trying to hide her satisfaction.

"Put the gun on the ground, come closer and don't fight back."

She obeyed. Letting herself be captured by Sabine could not end well for any radiant, and it promised to be worse for Sage. But she could never forgive herself if Skye died because of her, and she was confident that the other agents would do their best to rescue her.

Sabine dropped Skye, who fell to the floor, and gave Sage her full attention. The scientist grabbed her arms, finding no resistance, and closed radianite-suppressing cuffs around Sage's wrists. In an instant, all of Sage's connection to the world, all of her perception of the life around her, disappeared. It was like she was alone in the world.

Was this what she had once been? A person alone, unaware that each person beside her was connected, like her, to the entire universe? Without realizing that each was part of a whole, greater than the sum of its parts -- and that each one around her was, in their essence, exactly the same as her?

This was not the time for philosophical questions.

“You have what you wanted. Now, please, give her the antidote,” Sage asked.

"I'm a woman of my word, Mirai," she said, taking another syringe out of her pocket and applying the antidote to Skye. The scientist then turned her back on Skye and started pulling Sage, leading her towards a door at the back of the room. Sage had a feeling that if she entered that room, she would not come out alive.

If that was the price to pay, so be it.

The sound of a gunshot echoed through the room, and Sabine gave a cry of pain when the shot hit her abdomen. Two more shots were fired, hitting Sage's shoulder and Sabine's leg. Sage ignored the pain and used Sabine's distraction to get away from her grip, running to Skye’s side, who could barely hold the gun with both hands.

Sage didn't have her abilities, but she could still lift Skye and get her out of there. She rested Skye on her uninjured shoulder and left the room as quickly as possible, without looking back.

"Sorry for that shot, my aim’s not great right now," Skye said.

Sage let out a laugh. Skye had been used as a hostage, poisoned, and now the two of them were stumbling across the base, and Skye still had a sense of humor. Sage had been  _ so _ afraid of losing her.


	17. Chapter 17

Ever since he left Sabine's lab, Thomas had been waiting for the consequences to fall onto him with all their weight. Now, he was realizing that it was obvious that Sabine had never planned to go after him. No, Sabine's reaction had almost killed Mirai.

Mirai -- or Sage, as he was still getting used to calling her -- had tried to make the situation seem less grave when she told Thomas what had happened at Icebox, but there was no denying that she had almost been captured by Sabine. She was only safe and sound because Skye had recovered faster than expected. He knew that poison from the agents' description, and he had never seen anyone manage to hold a gun less than a minute after applying the antidote.

Sabine always wanted radiants to study, but that had been deliberate and premeditated. Her target had been Mirai, and that was something that would never have happened if Thomas had stayed with Kingdom. Either way, he had put Mirai at risk. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself for that anytime soon.

The truth was, he had been a coward. He had run away without even telling Sabine that he was leaving, and had left the consequences of his actions for someone else to deal with. And he couldn't stop thinking that, were it not by chance, the screams that would be coming out of that room would be Mirai's.

Thinking of Mirai, letting herself be captured to save someone else, totally at Sabine's mercy, could make him lose his mind if he didn't do something about it.

It was a quiet night, and he could not hear a living soul awake around the base. Thomas didn’t need to sleep, not since the accident, and nights were always hard. He was always alone, and his thoughts went to dark places when he had no distractions. Sometimes it meant he made a bad decision.

He reformed in the familiar territory of the room that he once shared with Sabine. He had to do something, even if it was just looking into her eyes for some kind of answer that he would never find. He knew that after being shot twice, she wouldn't be in the lab, and she never listened to doctors.

Sabine was there, as he had predicted, sitting on the bed that once had been theirs. She looked him in the eye, exhausted.

"What are you doing here, Thomas?"

"You set a trap for Mirai."

“I have some issues to settle with her. Too bad that the other one had such a good resistance to my poison. I didn't think she was going to recover so quickly.”

"What happened to you? You wanted to help people, Sabine. It was what we wanted. How did you become… this?”

She laughed, and the sound was nothing like the laugh she had before. That laugh had no humor, nothing but sarcasm and poison.

"As if you don't know what happened."

"I will never understand how you can live with yourself, causing so much suffering."

“You sound just like Mirai. Do you think it didn't hurt me at first, to be causing so much pain? Do you think I wasn’t afraid when I realized that it didn't affect me that much anymore? I was terrified, Thomas. So scared of what I was capable of.

“I spent days, weeks, alone. Remember, back when you couldn't control your skills so well, and you disappeared for so long? I almost started to think Mirai was right, for a while. She thought I was hallucinating when I saw you,” she said. "I did it all for you, and you're an ungrateful bastard."

"I never wanted any of this."

"Do you think _ I  _ wanted this?" She stood up, putting her weight on her unhurt leg. "I made so many sacrifices trying to get you back, and you threw it all away for beautiful words, empty promises and a pretty Chinese healer."

"I left because I can’t pretend that I don't care that people are dying because of me," he said. "I don't want any more blood on my hands.”

"Where were those principles when you begged me for help?"

"I didn't know that was the price to pay."

“And as soon as you found out, you ran away. You didn't even have the guts to tell me you were leaving,” she said. “You know, there _is_ something that you can’t run away from. Every drop of blood on my hands, every radiant that cried out for mercy, every part of me that was lost, was for you. My list of atrocities is a love letter to you, Thomas. Nothing can change the fact that each of them died for you.”

A shiver ran through Thomas's body. It was true. He knew that, in one way or another, he was to blame for every death in that laboratory. He himself had taken so many radiants to that experiment room.

"But not anymore." Sabine opened a drawer and pulled out a silenced pistol, a Ghost. How fitting.

"You wouldn't do that," he said. “You just said that you did all this for me. Put that gun down, Sabine.”

“I broke myself into a thousand pieces until I didn't recognize myself anymore, and you left anyway. I'm a monster, but you made me like this. You don't like what I've become, but that's what I am now,” she said, disengaging the safety lock with a click. “You made your decision, and now, I'm making mine. You are my enemy, Thomas. And my enemies don't tend to live very long.”

He looked into her eyes, looking for some trace of the Sabine he knew. Those green eyes he had fallen in love with, who had once looked at him full of affection, had nothing but an icy rage.

He had said so many times that she was capable of anything. He had never believed that at some point she would be capable of killing him.

"Sabine--"

"Goodbye, Thomas."

She pulled the trigger.


	18. Chapter 18

The void had become almost comforting for Thomas. Not because it hurt less -- he just got used to it. It was almost comforting to know that, whatever happened, he would know where he was going to end up.

Not anymore.

The first time he had found himself in the void, it was as if he were in infinite places at the same time, unable to stop. It had taken weeks to get control. And now, he was spinning through infinite points in space, impossibly fast, completely out of control. As if he were shattering for good, and each piece ended up in a corner of the universe.

It was different this time. He remembered that first time, when he didn't know what was going on, and he didn't know how to get back to normal. But that time, he had Sabine to guide him back, to give him strength.

Sabine, who had shot him. Sabine, whom he no longer recognized.

It was overwhelming, seeing glimpses of everything without being able to stop for even a second. He felt the emptiness pulling at him, stronger than ever, and he knew there was no going back this time.

Perhaps it was for the best.

But the universe owed him at least one last glimpse of what he was leaving behind. He didn't try to fight back, just negotiate, beg for one last look.

He slowed down, and he saw his own body on the floor. In death, he was corporeal, solid, cold. And Sabine had dropped to her knees beside the body, the gun lying on the floor beside her.

She was crying. Breaking down, as if it hadn't been her hand that pulled the trigger. Maybe exactly because of that.

Everything should have been different. But she had made her choices, and he was no longer there to feel guilty about it. Dying was a very effective way to let go.

He felt another tug from the void. His time was running out, and there was someone else he wanted to see before he dissipated for the last time.

He saw Mirai in her room, waking up startled. Her hand instinctively reached for the other side of the bed, empty, and she looked around. She stopped, looking directly at Thomas.

He wasn’t surprised. She had a connection with life and death, with radianite itself -- and part of Thomas's radiance had originally come from Mirai. They had a connection that he never fully understood. A single tear ran down Mirai's face.

"I hope you can be at peace, Thomas."

_ So do I. _

Time was running out. Thomas let himself go, feeling each part of him separate from the whole and dissipate in the open space. When he didn't resist, it didn't hurt that much.

He took one last breath as he disappeared into dark shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading this far, this is the most dramatic thing I’ve ever written and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!  
> This started out as something that could have happened pre canon but it evolved into something completely different -- I think the good and bad thing about Valorant is that it has almost no lore so everything could be canon until it’s not. I really like how it turned out though :)  
> I really like Viper as a character (and also have a crush on her but that’s beside the point hahaha) and I’ve written a story where I’ve tried to redeem her, but her voicelines always made me think she’s too good a villain to bring her back to the light. It was really interesting to break her down -- even if I made up the entire fight between her and Sage from one single voiceline, I think it makes sense for them to be on opposite sides of a decision Omen had to make. :)  
> Anyway thanks for reading it! I’m always open to comments and feedback :)


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